


Reflecting your light

by Incognito4713



Series: Nano2018 aka 101 dead chickens [10]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Supernatural Beings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-30
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2020-02-10 14:15:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18662056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Incognito4713/pseuds/Incognito4713
Summary: A creature of the night and destruction finds a source of light





	Reflecting your light

Riza Hawkeye was not like most girls her age. She did not wear a lot of dress or skirts, did not care much for the latest fashion from the big cities like her classmates. 

But that did not matter very much to her anyway. 

She had a doll from her mother that she sew dresses for and the other girls always admired her for that and asked her to help them out stitching up their doll clothes. 

She also learned the hard way how to provide for herself when her father locked himself into his study for days on end and later got too sick to even try an attempt at taking care of his little daughter after her mother died. 

Their neighbour, an elderly woman whose children had long been parents on their own and moved into the city for better jobs, took care of her most of the time and taught her how to keep her garden in check and how to mend and alter her own clothes to save money. 

She would also give her the old clothes of her sons to wear when Riza had no money to buy new clothes herself. So she ended up wearing a lot of boys clothes as a child but it did not bother her at all.

The neighbour also showed her how to hunt early on but she developed skills very fast and learned quickly. Shooting came easy to her. 

And soon she was good enough to sell the pelts of anything she did not need on her own as well as give the meat in exchange for other goods in the village.

In her 14th winter everyone had a hard time getting by and she was in high demand for bringing in more furs but game was sparse these days and she had to wander far from her usual grounds with her sleigh. 

So far she got lost for a while.

It was close to dusk when she heard the sound of fighting animals and climbed up a tree to get out of the way and maybe get a good shot. 

Maybe those predators were the reason that there was no game closer by anymore. If two or more groups were fighting over the same territory it would scare the prey away. 

She just hoped that it would be some single hunters like mountain lions and bears. 

But luck was not on her side when she heard the tale telling sound of a wounded wolf whimpering and dying.

She was now high enough in the tree to see a big mountain lioness letting the throat of a wolf drop form its snout. 

If she shot true she could go home with two big pelts and rare ones.   
It would bring her a pretty cenz. 

She spoke a silent prayer to the nature gods and forest spirits to forgive her for taking a live and killed the lion with a single shot.

Down on the ground again she made fast haste to get to the cadavers so other predators would not get to them first and started to load them on her slide. 

They were very heavy and if it would not have been so late she probably would have drained them first as to not leave a blood trail but she needed to find her way into known territories so she could find her way home before it got too dark.

She was just about to leave when she heard a high pitched whimper from a bush to her right. 

Closing her eyes in a silent prayer that she hopefully did not kill a nursing mother lion she made her way to where the noises were coming from and found a pup. 

A relieved sigh left her. At least she was not at fault but what to do with that tiny one? 

She actually did not really need to debate it anymore, seeing that she had already made up her mind the second she heard the noise. 

She would take the little bundle of fur and even if it would have been a cup she would have done the same.

The pup just curled up when she grabbed it at its neck and she placed it in a sling underneath her coat to keep it warm.   
The pup curled in on itself and stayed put to her astonishment.

She guessed that the fur ball had a tough day and was simply too exhausted to give her much trouble anymore but she could admit to herself that she was quite happy not to be alone anymore. 

Especially with how rapidly darker it got.

She finally found her way back into the part of the forest that she knew by heart when she heard the howling of wolves in the distance and her blood froze at the sound.

The pup stirred against her as it heard it and started to whimper again so she held his muzzle shut because she really did not want to have an encounter with an angry pack of wolves in the look out for their pup.

Now she thought she should have left it were it was but something about that pup just made it hard for her to leave it behind. 

Even when she was about to stop and put it in a bush to hide it away for its pack to find it she could not.   
It was like something wanted her to get lost that day and find it. Maybe even rescue it from the mountain lion. 

She would put a tribute to the nature gods and forests spirits out at midnight when she got home as a thank you, she decided when she rounded up to her house and went to the shack to start unloading the slide and store it for the night. 

The first thing she did, after bringing the pup into the shack and locking it in for now, was to make dinner for her father and bring it to his study. 

He hadn't even noticed that it was way passed the usual time nor that she had been gone since she had brought him lunch. 

But that was fine with her. She ate a little bit herself before she mustered the strength to start her long night of striping and taking apart the two big bodies in her shack. 

It took her a little while to get the heavy carcasses into the kitchen but eventually she had everything she needed to started working on them. 

The pup she put into a wooden box with some blankets close to the stove and a bowl with water and some fresh meat when she started to take apart the cadaveres. 

It was a very messy and exhausting work that took her a long time but eventually she had everything prepared to be further processed or sold. 

The pup eventually started to get curious and sniffed at everything in the kitchen. 

And with horror she noticed that the puppy definitely had to be house broken. 

Her long list of chores for the night ended shortly before dawn when she contemplated bringing the puppy outside into the shack again but couldn't because it was such a cold winter and it looked so tiny and shivered so much. 

She left the breakfast for her father in front of his study door before she made her way into her bedroom to finally get some much needed sleep. 

The pup could do little to no harm in the basement where she left it with some extra blankets and bowls with food and water. Or at least she hoped so. 

For now she sank into her bed and dreamt about the book she maybe could buy from the pelts she got yesterday. 

Around noon she woke from a restful sleep and immediately noticed just how hungry she was.

It was not like she had much chance to eat last night, or had time to in the morning. She also wondered how the puppy would be doing and how much chaos that little one would have caused her to clean and tidy up now. 

With that in mind she silently made her way to the kitchen.   
The basement door was still closed and locked so her father has not been down there. 

Not that he would actually do that but she had a slight fear that now that she was hiding something from him down there he would choose that moment to break from his normal routine. 

She went downstairs and was happy to see the pup sleeping in the little crate but the water and food looked untouched. 

That had her frown deeply.   
She crouched down and placed her hand on his flank. 

The shivering bundle of fur was way too cold in her mind and breathed a little too hard for her liking. 

She took the crate and went back upstairs to bring it closer to the stove. She needed to start to process the meat anyway so it would get nice and cozy in the room soon. That should give the little one some extra heat. 

She noticed happily that the warmth seemed to help the pup with the shivering and that it started to look for water on its own after an hour or so. 

She had lost track of time at some point, too busy making sure to have some nice sausages to trade or sell in the village. 

People in the country are not as picky eaters as people from the city. Especially what food is getting short in the long winter months. And if you do not exactly know what you are eating, most people do not really care as long as they don't have to go hungry anymore. 

That was one of the reasons why she could actually effort to get the medicines for her father or pay his doctors bills. Long gone was the money her mother had brought into the marriage and his publications had earned. 

Now it was just what they had in the house and what she could earn and trade to keep the two of them alive. No, three of them now.

With a smile she looked down at the pup that had been sniffing at her sock for a good minute now before she asked it if it needed to step out or was hungry.

She placed its bowl with the food from last night down on the floor and opened the backyard door to give it some range. 

A quick glance to her little shrine next to the shack had her smiling, her tributes had been taken and feather was left in its place.


End file.
